


circa Regna tonat

by Xekstrin



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Mutual Pining, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 08:12:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18362081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xekstrin/pseuds/Xekstrin
Summary: [It thunders around the kingdom.]Ruby, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren are on a mission to rebuild Penny. The last piece of the puzzle is in an abandoned factory far outside the kingdom walls, and Pyrrha would do anything to atone for her actions, even if it means breaking her own rules.





	circa Regna tonat

The cliff face appeared without warning. According to all their maps, this part of the forest stretched on indefinitely; the darkest part of the wilds that neither humanity nor faunus had tried to brave yet. Ruby ran ahead. Something on the wind made her nose twitch (and she faintly remembered Blake always stroked the top of her head and teased that maybe she was part faunus herself).

Then Ruby found herself pushing past a bit of scrub with a casual swipe from Crescent, and she was on the edge.

It was as wide as a village, a hole bored into the ground. Some greedy god might as well have carved it out with a giant ice cream scoop, leaving the earth hollowed out. It was wide and smooth and unnatural, and Ruby teetered on the edge with her arms windmilling until she lost her balance and fell.

"Yaghh!"

She lashed out with Crescent, burying it deep onto the edge of the hole in the ground. Instinct stuck the landing and she swung there by one hand, gazing out at miles of black glass.

On the other end of the crater, the factory loomed up. Steel and rust, grown over with moss and vines. It was ugly as a bruise on the horizon, ragged columns jutting up into the sky, and broken walls exposing a darkness so deep that she wasn't sure their lanterns would cut it. Something had happened here, she knew. A Dust explosion, one so hazardous that the factory needed to evacuate with little warning. It was one of the few left behind from Dr. Polendina's research, and within it lay their only hope to revive her best friend.

"We found you," she breathed, a little in awe.

Then there was a pull at her belt buckle, and her bracers and her kneepads and the joint that replaced her right elbow. Relaxing into the familiar touch, Ruby let Pyrrha pick her up by her metal bits and deposit her safely back on solid ground.

"Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked, fussing over her, but Ruby's eyes were still focused on the factory in the distance. "When I saw you fall, I..."

Realizing she was being ignored, Pyrrha followed Ruby's gaze to the crumbling ruins. The softness in her face fell away, replaced by determination, and something exhausted and hard-edged.

Pyrrha's hand rested on Ruby's shoulder, and Ruby covered it with her own palm. They both needed the comfort of touch, right then. "That's it, isn't it?" Pyrrha said.

"Mhm."

Storm clouds gathered overhead as Ren and Nora caught up to them. With a warning hand, Pyrrha kept them back from the abrupt drop. Shading her eyes against the setting sun, Nora squinted at their destination. "How is it still standing?" Nora wondered. "Holy moly, the lights are still on! You see it too, don't you, Ren?"

Twilight approached, darkness falling faster when aided by the clouds overhead. And from far away, the little factory lit up from every window. Even from this distance they could hear the hum of Dust generators, and a low pulsing of gears.

"I wasn't there for this part of the lecture," Nora said. "Can somebody fill me in?"

"Dr. Polendina said it would still be operational." Pyrrha pulled her notebook out, flipping past pages of sketches and scribbles to the instructions they were left behind. "When the accident happened, they hit the self-destruct function before abandoning the facility."

"Oh yeah," Ren said, "Totally non-sketchy protocol."

"But the signal didn't go through," Ruby said. "It's just sending out a distress signal, like, it's saying _What do we do? What do we do? Everything is broken. What do we do?_ over and over and over again, but there's no response. So the final step isn't working. So the factory keeps running like it always did, kinda."

Nora wrung her hands nervously. "It won't blow up with us inside, right?"

"Not if you keep your scroll off," Pyrrha warned her. "You did turn your scroll off, right?" It wasn't a sure thing, but Dr. Polendina had warned them of the possibility. The self-destruct message might piggyback off the signal their scrolls sent out, and then the countdown would begin.

She nodded. "Miles ago! Ages ago! I did it the second you told me to!" 

"Right after finishing the last row in her game of Rocks Blocks," Ren said.

That earned him a hard punch to the shoulder. "Snitch. You're just mad I'm beating you."

"You cheat," he returned. "You bought all those bombs to clear the last level."

"It's not cheating! It's a function of the game!" Nora lifted both hands to the sky. "Embrace the microtransactions, Ren!"

"Never!"

Ruby just rolled her eyes as the tragic love story between her two friends played out in the usual steps. Standing a little closer to Pyrrha, she wrapped an arm around her waist and turned them both towards the factory.

"So what stopped people from coming back?" Ruby wondered softly, seeing the factory lights flutter. "It's still running. It hasn't exploded. Like why didn't anybody come back to fix it, or at least finish the job and make it all go boom?"

The storm clouds overhead grew thicker than ever, and then, as if answering her, struck the entire building in a seizure of lightning bolts. One after the other, so fast and so blinding that all four of them hit the deck on instinct. Green and blue lightning flashed and stormed, raging with a fury so potent that Ruby could feel it in her soul. There were few things that made Ruby Rose flinch in fear, but the display before them left her trembling faintly, in awe at the pure power on display. When she dared to look up again, she saw several smaller craters had opened up around the main impact site.

"I see," Pyrrha said.

"Wow." Ruby snuck a glance at Nora. "I wonder if..."

"Mmm-mm." Nora shook her head. "Nope. Nope. Nuh-uh."

Ruby quickly retracted it. "You're right. I shouldn't have said anything."

"...We've never tried _green_ lightning," Ren said.

Nora got up to her knees, rising before any of the others dared to. "And we never will!"

They all retreated further back into the forest as another volley of strikes rained down on the crater and the factory. Ruby pulled a schematic from her backpack, unrolling it and listening carefully to the storm. She counted off each booming thunderclap until the sky was quiet again. Using that number, she applied it to the formulas Dr. Polendina gave them.

"It's not random," she said. "But this next storm is likely to keep going for another few days, at least."

Nora punched her fist into one palm. "So we wait for an opening and then we bust into the joint. Sounds good to me."

Nodding once, Ruby rolled up all the papers and schematics strewn about, and they made camp.

That night, Pyrrha came into her tent. She was still awake, staring at the roof of canvas over her head, and didn't say a word when Pyrrha slowly stretched out next to her. There was a careful amount of space between them, until Ruby turned onto her side and met Pyrrha's gaze.

All the blood had drained from Pyrrha's face. Even though their eyes met, Ruby got the distinct feeling Pyrrha was staring somewhere else, somewhere miles away, where no one else could ever reach.

"Can't sleep?" Ruby asked quietly.

Pyrrha tightly shook her head no.

"Wanna talk about it?"

Quicker this time, Pyrrha shook her head no again. "You've got your own burdens, Ruby. I don't mean to saddle you with mine." 

"Then you should scoot in here," Ruby suggested, opening up her bedding a bit and letting Pyrrha snuggle closer to her. She knew Pyrrha was only a few years older than her, and just as vulnerable— maybe more so, despite it all. But when she was wrapped up in Pyrrha's arms she felt so safe and protected, and she always fell asleep faster. Pyrrha seemed to like it, too. They'd been sharing the same tent for months now. She wondered why they even bothered the pretense of setting up two separate tents at night.

These days they were all less afraid to ask for what they needed. Once upon a time it would have been embarrassing to admit they hungered for touch and to be held and coddled. It felt like something a kid asked for. But there wasn't any room for that now. Now they all knew exactly how young and how fragile they really were.

When she woke up the tent was empty, and Pyrrha was out taking guard shift while Ren caught some sleep. This wasn't Grimm territory but none of them were naive enough to believe that would protect them for long.

"Let's move," Ren suggested once he woke up. "We can't linger too long in one spot."

"Yeah, let's not make it any easier for Grimm to sniff us out."

Cracking a grin, Ruby flexed at them. As always, her right elbow clicked a little. The metal joint was always audible to her, and she wondered if others could hear it and know about the injury, even if the rest of her was still meat and bone. "Well if they do, you know Pyrrha and I can always give them the silver and gold combo."

Pyrrha paused in the middle of rolling up her own unused tent, just to give Ruby the driest look imaginable.

"I'm kidding," Ruby said.

"Jokes are supposed to be funny," Pyrrha responded, mildly.

They all knew Pyrrha wouldn't use her Maiden powers. Not if she could help it. Not against a _Grimm_ , at least.

Every so often the storm would erupt again, just close enough to make them all flinch. But by the end of the second day they were completely unphased by the noise, ignoring it as they played a game of dominos around the campfire. They had moved further along the rim of the impact point, as close to the factory as they could get before the lightning bolts threatened them, as well.

"I wish I could talk to Penny and tell her how close we are to completing the mission," Ruby lamented. The last time she got the chance, they were still miles from the impact point.

It was Pyrrha's turn. She looked at her hand, hesitating over the smooth white tiles.

Lying out on her stomach, Nora propped her chin in both hands. "Awww. Don't worry, Ruby. Soon we'll be able to use our scrolls again and you'll get to chat with your girlfriend and I'll be able to _demolish_ Ren at Rocks Blocks."

Pyrrha paused mid-move, head tilted to Ruby, carefully listening.

Ruby's face burned bright scarlet. "Penny's not my girlfriend! How do you even have a robot voice as a... listen, she's my _best_ friend."

Sitting up straighter, Nora gasped in offense. "I thought we were your best friends?"

Pyrrha finished her turn and then it was Ren's move.

"You are." Ruby waggled one finger, admonishing her. "It's an honorary distinction you know. And it's not competition."

Nora squinted, tilting her hands back and forth as if she were trying to balance something out. "Okay, but like, if it was... where would I rank? Top ten? Top five? Out of curiosity."

"I'm not gonna rank my friends!" Ruby stopped to think about it. "Wait. I don't think I even _have_ ten friends."

"Yes! That means I'm in the top ten by default!"

They squabbled, light-hearted, wondering where Blake and Weiss and Yang fit on the pyramid since two of them were teammates and one of them was Ruby's sister. It all felt comfortable as trying on old shoes, the kind so built to your feet you could just slip them right on. It felt like being back at Beacon; it was cozy and warm.

When the rain picked up again they all scattered back to their tents, ignoring the booming thunder in the impact site next to them.

Ruby waited for a few hours, staring at the roof of her tent before becoming impatient. The cold was making her right elbow hurt. She pulled her blanket over her head to cover herself from the rain before sliding open Pyrrha's tent.

"Hey," she said, "You awake?"

In the darkness, she could see Pyrrha's long outline under her own blankets, shifting subtly. "Mmhmm."

"Can I sleep with you tonight?"

"Of course," she said. "I just didn't want to bother you..."

Before Pyrrha could even finish her sentence, Ruby was wrapped around her, sighing deeply. "You never bother me." 

Maybe those rough, calloused hands should have frightened her. They were killer's hands, after all. They belonged to something that wasn't entirely human anymore, that glowed gold Dust and yoked the elements of the earth to her will, stronger than any storm. But when Pyrrha angled those hands up Ruby's cheeks, knuckles brushing against her hair, fingertips stroking over the shell of her ear, Ruby could forget.

It was just Pyrrha. Her best friend.

"Are you nervous?" Pyrrha wondered, thumb stroking just under her eye.

Warmth spread out from wherever her body was pressed to Pyrrha's. It made her drowsy, and the last thing she wanted was to think about things that made her nervous. But Pyrrha was so rarely in a chatty mood, she wanted to indulge her. "About what?"

"When the storms die down and we head in there. What if we don't find what we're looking for?" 

"Don't worry about it."

Evidently, that wasn't the right thing to say. Pyrrha stopped stroking her face, her soft body feeling tense, hard. "What do you mean, don't worry about it?"

"I mean exactly what I said." Ruby drew away, just far enough to look up at her. "Things don't always work out the way we want. Sometimes bad things just happen."

"Of course I— obviously I know things don't always—" Pyrrha started to stammer, tripping over her own words. "I'm not an—"

Ruby took both of her hands when Pyrrha made to push her away further. "I meant we'll do what we can. If it doesn't work out, then we try something else. But being nervous doesn't really serve us right now."

"But there might not be anything else. This might be our only chance." Clearly tormented, Pyrrha tried to pull her hands free, tugging futilely. "Don't you think I know— don't you think I've _prayed_ for— I have to _fix_ this, Ruby! I have to pay for what I did!"

Sad realization fell down like a stone into the pit of her stomach.

"...Oh, Pyrrha. Pyrrha, that was an accident." She stressed it, harder. "It was an accident. It wasn't your fault. You can't still think anyone believes you meant to hurt Penny."

"And Cinder was an accident?" Pyrrha suddenly returned her grip, iron-hard. "[And Jaune](https://youtu.be/XN8gPvX48p4)?"

Ruby didn't immediately respond, even though she was the only one who could answer. This was something only they shared. That night on the roof of Beacon's tower, when Pyrrha became the Fall Maiden. The price she paid, and the earth-shaking power she wielded, and how in the end none of it changed anything at all.

"Yes," Ruby said firmly. "It was all an accident. I'll say it as many times as you need to hear it. I'll do anything you need." She didn't retreat, even when Pyrrha's grip started to hurt. "Please, just tell me. If it's anything I have, I'll give it to you, Pyrrha. And that's a promise."

And Pyrrha crushed their lips together in a searing kiss.

Of course she knew what a kiss was. But Ruby had always figured it was just something couples did because...reasons. The same reason you shake hands when you meet someone new. She didn't think it would feel like being drenched in hot, sticky strawberry syrup. She didn't think it was like submerging in a warm bath and being set on fire at the same time. She didn't think it would feel so _good_.

Her eyes flew wide open, a shocked noise escaping her.

"—Shit."

She'd never heard Pyrrha swear before, but tonight seemed like it was made for firsts. Pyrrha retreated all the way to the far side of the tent, the canvas threatening to buckle. Both hands covered her face, and she gasped in rapid, shuddering exhales.

"I'm so sorry," Pyrrha started. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I'm just... I don't know why I can't— I don't know why I always _do_ this!" her voice raised sharply in anger, but not at Ruby. At herself, as always. "I always go for someone who isn't available and then when it's too late I act like a complete fool."

Honestly Ruby was still reeling too much from the kiss to try and unpack any of that. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No!" The little tent sparked with light, amber and golden. It was just for a flash, but Pyrrha's eyes still burned for a while longer. Even when Ruby closed her eyes she could see after images, the stamp of Maiden power.

"Then..." Ruby hedged. "Do you... do you need... me?"

The question lingered, heavy as her tongue in her mouth. Ruby dared a little closer, curious about this, about the things that Pyrrha had left unsaid for evidently a very long time.

"I don't know what that means."

"Do you need me to kiss you again?" Ruby clarified, less nervous now.

"But Penny—"

"Penny is just my friend," Ruby insisted, but this time when she said it, it hurt. And there was no reason to keep pretending it didn't hurt.

"But you love her." The glow in Pyrrha's green eyes waned from confusion. "Don't you?"

"I don't know if she feels the same way." She was too afraid to ask. She was afraid of the answer. So maybe she was still a child after all. Because she knew firsthand what it was like to lose Penny, to regret everything unsaid, but now that she was granted the miracle of a second chance, she couldn't spit it out. 

Musing silence, for a while. "I guess we're in the same boat then."

Pyrrha's fingertips brushed over her lips, the touch like spark to kindling.

Ruby kissed her, this time. Then she lost track of who was kissing who. There were more important things to think about, like who was kissing _where_. Pyrrha covered her entire face in needy kisses. Some of them felt as docile and warm as those nights spent sleeping in her arms, and some made Ruby feel achingly and uncomfortably awake.

Somehow, gentler was worse. She felt every centimeter of Pyrrha's lips on her neck, and she hadn't realized lips could be so soft. Every time she thought she'd reached a peak, that she couldn't take any more, Pyrrha kissed her again and took her even higher, until she was squirming, mind white-hot and blank. She wanted to _scream_ , honestly. She almost did when Pyrrha rolled on top of her, reaching under Ruby's shirt to stroke her bare stomach.

It was like a hunger, but one that only grew sharper the more it was indulged. Pangs of pain, longing so deep it hurt, were only soothed by Pyrrha straining even closer, closer. She needed her closer to be satisfied. She wanted this, all of this, directly in her bloodstream. She wanted it—

 _Inside,_ she realized, with the spark of something close an epiphany. _Inside, inside_.  

 _Inside_ , her body chanted, like a starving little beast. _Inside my heart, inside my soul._ Even if she had no idea what to ask for she knew Pyrrha could give it to her, could fill that aching need. All she could hear was the thundering of her own heart and Pyrrha's voice, raising every hair on the back of her neck.

Then Ruby stopped, suddenly alert. "Whoa! Brakes! Hold on." Shushing Pyrrha in the middle of another apology, Ruby cocked her head to the side and listened. "I don't hear the storm anymore. Do you?"

They both listened, waiting for the lightning to start up again. She'd covered Pyrrha's mouth with one hand, and hadn't moved it, so Pyrrha could only shake her head no. Then the two of them were scrambling to put their gear on, waking up Ren and bringing Nora up to speed as she kept watch over their camp.

Pulling her hood up was an act of instinct rather than any real need. The rain had already stopped, and the skies cleared up to reveal an expanse of twinkling stars. In the distance, the factory was dead and dark, no lights shining, no generators humming.  "Okay everyone. We talked about this, you know the plan."

"Don't die!" Nora said cheerfully, and they split up into pairs.

There were enough broken walls to make entry easy. Less easy was the sense that they had stepped into a graveyard. All around them, stacked fifty feet high, were dead bodies. They all looked different, had different shapes and sizes and functions, but they were all like Penny. All of them were built to house a soul, and none of them ever would.

"If there are any security bots, I'll handle them." Black energy curled around Ruby, the force of Pyrrha's semblance as familiar and comforting as a hand on her shoulder. "Though I think they turned off with the rest of the facility."

"Let's hope so."

As they ventured further in, the source of the weather anomaly became clear. Miles of Dust crystals lay dormant on rows of machinery, too complex and alien for them to parse out. They flickered every now and then, cracked and shattered and broken beyond repair. Green and blue sparks sputtered and then died, waiting for something that would never come.

She wasn't entirely sure of the correlation but it seemed that whenever the factory went dark, the lightning storms did, too.

"What happened here?" Pyrrha wondered, pausing in front of another lifeless doll. She reached out and took its hand, curling the jointed fingers. When she let it go, it dropped, heavy and empty. "What triggered the first explosions?"

"Dunno. Didn't ask." Ruby was only half paying attention. She wanted to find the main console and get out of here as soon as possible. After cracking open a rusted door that lead to one of the control rooms, Ruby and Pyrrha finally found what they were looking for. They compared the console to the sketches they both had in their notebook, glad for the lessons they'd learned in Beacon about proper field notes. Resisting the temptation of relying on their scrolls for too much had turned out to be a boon after all.

"Keep guard," Ruby said, and made sure the long-distance signals on her scroll was turned off before she used it to boot up the main system. A few lights flickered on, her fingers flying across the keyboard as she requested permission for what they needed. Using Dr. Polendina's password, they found its location.

The chip. The spark of life.

Ruby turned off her scroll again and waited, breath held. But the countdown didn't start. They hadn't been sure if turning off the long-distance communication function of their scrolls would work, so keeping them entirely shut down was the only way to be safe. This risk might not have worked.

But it did. Thankfully.

Another quick run through mazes of mannequins and dull glass eyes lead them to their goal. A safebox with all of Penny's code and backup files, everything needed to build her again and fuse her to a new body.  Every single body in this building had one, and theoretically they could have been reverse-engineered for Penny. But the easiest would be to use Penny's, and here it was, right in the palm of her hand.

Casting a glance around them, Pyrrha said, "Do you think we should take one home for her?"

Another series of clicks from her right elbow as she stretched. Ruby took a second to think it over, rubbing the aching joint. All around her were bodies, empty. Any one of them could have served their purpose. "Doesn't seem right to pick without consulting Penny, first." 

"None of us were consulted when we received our bodies," Pyrrha pointed out, unable to keep the low humor out of her voice. "I would have asked to be a little taller."

"You're already plenty tall as it is. Anyway, all we need is this." Ruby pocketed the chip, heart hammering. "Let's get out of here."

A loud crack made them both flinch, fear lighting them up from the inside. But it wasn't a thunderclap. It was a flare.

[It was Nora's distress signal.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjRiLKSPbqc)

"I'll catch up!" Pyrrha said, seconds before Ruby activated her semblance and rushed out of the facility, streaming like arterial blood. She skidded to a halt outside on the edge of the crater, rose petals swarming around her as she sought out Nora and Ren.

Clouds were gathering in the sky. Not good.

A swarm of Grimm were gathered around the facility. Extra not good.

The first one pounced with a shriek, claws gleaming white. Spinning Crescent Rose out, Ruby pulled it into scythe form and let inertia work against the Grimm. She stepped to the side, holding the staff firm and the blade wide, catching the creature mid-leap and slicing it in half.

Rain began pelting down, the clouds growing thicker overhead. Shaking herself like a wet dog, Ruby snarled at the approaching Grimm, firing off a bullet to keep them at bay. "Okay, Silver Eye Power, now is a good time to go!"

It didn't work, and the Grimm rushed her. She spun and kicked, using Crescent Rose as a shield, as a brace, as a balancing beam. She slashed and fired, a one-woman army as another distress flare rose up from the other end of the facility. Once she had cleared a path, she held her breath and flew. Streaming out with the power of her semblance again, she arrived next to Ren and Nora just as she was about to light another flare.

"Buzz off!"

The tip of Crescent Rose sunk into thick skull plating, cracking a Grimm's head in half. Nora gave her a smile of relief, her face sticky with blood and pitch.

"Thanks, backup! Where's Pyrrha?" Nora asked. 

"On her way." She shifted Crescent partially, just enough to fire off another round. "We got what we needed."

"Oh, good." Ren fired off another flare to let Pyrrha know where they were headed. The rain pelted down even harder, sparks of green and blue already lighting up around the impact site. The facility was streaming with light, every system online. The storms would resume soon, and she didn't want to be here when they did.

She wondered briefly what the broken factory looked like when it was occupied and maintained. With people in it, doing their job, living their life. She wondered what messages it was sending out now in its afterlife, over and over again.

_What do we do? What do we do? Everything is broken. What do we do?_

"Okay, Silver Eye Power," Ruby said, spinning Crescent one more time. "Now is a good time to go!"

It didn't work (again, the damn thing never worked when she needed it to) and a Nevermore dropped from the sky like a bolt of lightning itself. Covered in misshapen growths, it could barely fly, swollen and riddled with veins of pure green Dust.

It opened its maw at them, rattled all its feathers, and shot out a blast of electricity directly at Ruby. She'd never been electrocuted before and to be perfectly frank, she did not care to have it happen ever again. For an instant there was nothing except pain, white lights erupting behind her eyelids. She swore she saw every vein in her eyes coursing with that light, and then she was outside her own body, looking down at herself convulsing on the ground.

She could see herself, map out her entire nervous system. Alive for now, and bright... with the exception of the dull metal in her right elbow, her clicky joint. All of it could be snuffed out in an instant.

The Nevermore puffed itself up, rattling again in preparation for another strike.

"Watch out!"

Nora leaped in front of her, taking the blow. Grounding herself, Nora buzzed with the excess energy even as she tried to let some of it seep into the earth. Then the sky opened up, pouring rain down over all of them as the storm began to reach its peak once more. Ren dragged Ruby away as Nora redirected the power right back at the Nevermore. It screamed, and then screamed again when she vaulted herself up and struck it over the head.

"I'm fine," Ruby said before he could even ask, stumbling to her feet.

"Why isn't Pyrrha here yet?" Ren shouted over the resulting din. Rumbles sounded, thunderous drums, like a giant in the clouds blowing its warhorn in preparation for battle. "We need to get out of here!"

"I don't know! She should have been right behind me!" Drenched all the way to her skin, Ruby shouted again. "I'll be right back. Watch after each other!"

Nora turned a jagged smile at Ruby, lightning coiling on the curve of her tongue. "He always does!"

With another snap of fabric she billowed out towards the facility. Lightning struck her footsteps, the clouds sparking and hissing. When she found Pyrrha she was surrounded by a mass of dissolving Grimm bodies, covered in pitch. Another wave was rushing her, and without thought Ruby ran to join her. There were so many, swarming and howling, and no matter how many they cut down, there were always more. Finally, two other giant Nevermore dropped from the sky, trembling and twitching with Dust mutations. The first one opened its beak, striking Pyrrha the way Ruby had been struck, while the other grabbed Pyrrha in its claws and—

And Ruby screamed, shrill, rippling with uncontrollable power. A blast of silver erupted from her, knocking the Nevermore aside. One of them went up in smoke, the other managed to dodge just enough that she only managed to clip its wing. Ruby swung forward, chasing the limping Grimm, but it opened its maw and fired right back at her. Green and blue surged in her direction.

Staggering from being electrocuted once, Pyrrha knocked Ruby to the side. The second blast hit her.

Bracing herself, Pyrrha caught the bolt of lightning with her bare hands.

It crackled, twisting and zapping like a living thing, but Pyrrha wielded it until it became solid. Golden light erupted from her, chasing away the sickly green, and the gust of wind blowing from her knocked Ruby down onto the earth.

Lightning struck down. Once, twice, three times in a row. Each time it hit Pyrrha, as if targeting her. But golden light swirled around her, coating her as she caught every bolt. The misshapen lightning bolts stayed around her, hovering in her Aura until she seemed like an ancient Grimm herself, covered in the ruined weapons of everything that had failed to kill her.

Her eyes glowed, and she flung out with one hand, all the lightning formed into a row of crackling spears. Every single lightning bolt struck the Nevermore at the same time, and, overwhelmed, it splattered into a fine black mist.

Ruby didn't even have time to feel relief before the assault began again. 

The sky was in chaos. The storm was coming. Pyrrha grabbed Ruby, standing over her with her shield held up. The white material expanded, three golden arcs of protection faintly visible over its scarred surface. The lightning struck, again and again, each one sounding like something between crashing cymbals and a dying animal, and each time Pyrrha's protective energy batted it aside.

"Pyrrha—" Ruby started, shouting in fear, but when Pyrrha glared down sharply at her, the words died in her throat. Ruby was staring at a stranger. Something inhuman, not her best friend. Yellow light poured from her eyes, from her gasping mouth, billowing from her in golden coils of steam. Her expression frozen in a grimace, lined like a bronze mask. Blood red leaves whipped around them, the winds alternating muggy hot and bitter cold, Autumn refusing to relent to neither Summer nor Winter. The scent of rot hung heavy in the air, layers of pine needles and animal bones, buried things, detritus, offal.

The Maiden. She'd only ever seen her once before, held aloft on wings of fire and lightning. Elemental magic. Raw.

Pyrrha gripped her by the hood, leaving Ruby feeling like a kitten being hauled by the scruff as she took her to safety. It was slow travel, the Dust storm focusing them as the only upright figured on the scorched earth. Even when they hit the shelter of the trees, the freak lightning followed, splintering wood into matchsticks. Ruby squealed, hiding her face against Pyrrha's shoulder as she was half guided, half dragged out of the blast zone and then dumped onto the forest floor.

When they were finally out of range, Pyrrha let the Maiden power drop from her. She stood upright for a while longer, shivering and twitching, and then her eyes rolled back into her skull and she collapsed. 

Scrambling over to her, Ruby gingerly lifted her up onto her lap. "Hey. Hey!"

She tapped her cheeks lightly, urging her over and over again. When Pyrrha didn't even stir, and the rain began to pelt down harder, Ruby took her emergency flare out and let it fly. Even if it drew Grimm to her, at least it would also let Ren and Nora know where they were.

Pyrrha flinched at the noise, twitching with a flash of semblance. Her spear and Jaune's shield flew to her hands, ready to fight, but there was no foe to be found. Just Ruby grinning down at her wanly.

"Hi. I'm glad that woke you up."

"Did we win?" Pyrrha said, looking bleary.

"Aaaand I think you took too many zaps to the head." 

Ruby helped her sit up, stroking her wet hair out of her face. Pyrrha slowly regained her focus, and nearby, the storm raged on. Blue and green flashed in regular intervals, and Ruby began to count them. This storm would last a lot longer than the first, if her mental math was correct.

"That thing hit me," Pyrrha mumbled, rubbing her forehead. "I got electrocuted."

"Me too. I think my scroll must be fried at this point.

Then, jolted by the fear of sudden realization, she checked her satchel for Penny's chip.

She retrieved it. And its charred, blackened husk crumbled in her hands.

Holding her breath, Ruby fought hard not to cry. This wasn't the end. There were still dozens of robot bodies inside the facility. They just had to try again, that was all. After a moment, Pyrrha's gaze sharpened on the smoldering ash in her hands, watching the rain wash gray rivulets down Ruby's bare wrist. 

"Oh, Ruby..." she said. "I'm so..."

"Don't." Ruby let the burnt chip fall, rubbing her eyes. "Don't apologize."

"You shouldn't have come back for me. This is all my fault."

"The Grimm might've gotten you." She inhaled sharply, not even wanting to bring up the fact that the Nevermore had shocked her once already before she'd gone back to check on Pyrrha. "I thought you were right behind me. When you didn't show up I got so scared."

"I would have been fine, I can handle a few Grimm."

"Well I couldn't take that chance." Ruby's eyes burned. But she refused to cry, even if that would have been a good time for it, because with the rain washing down her face she could have pretended she wasn't crying. It wouldn't have fooled Pyrrha, probably, but she could have pretended anyway. "I can't. And I don't want you to tell me that was the wrong decision."

"Okay. I won't." Pyrrha held her tight. The rain pounded harder than ever, shockingly cold. If Pyrrha were more in control of her powers, maybe she could make it all go away. Maybe she could turn it into a warm summer shower. Maybe Ruby could blast the clouds into nothing but wisps with her silver eyes, if she knew how to use them. But they didn't know how to use their powers, or even where to begin learning how. They didn't know anything and they didn't have anyone except each other, and nobody else knew how much it cost them to be _special_ , to be powerful, to be something out of a legend. "It's okay. I'm sorry. It's all going to be okay. We're still here, we're still together."

They squeezed each other tight until a loud rustle in the treeline made them both leap apart, weapons brandished. But it was Ren, and behind him Nora— carrying someone? An injured person, Ruby thought at first, until she came a little closer and used the person's hand to wave at them.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully, half of a robot strapped to her back. "Look, I killed the Grimm and found a friend! Settle a bet for me. Doesn't this one look just like Coco? She does, right?"

Ruby almost dropped Crescent in shock. Running up to Nora, she pushed her hand out of the way and searched the robot, feeling around for the hinge on the back of her neck. If this one was the same as all the others...

She cracked it open, finding the blue chip inside. They could use it. Reverse engineer it. Scavenge what they need to bring Penny back.

And for a moment she hesitated, looking down at the unfamiliar face, wondering, _Is this okay? Is this looting from the dead? If we hooked her up, would she come alive?_

She closed the hinge, letting Nora piggyback the body for now. "Let's keep the chip inside the body. That might protect it better than my pocket would, anyway."

"Huh?" Nora blinked a few times, taken aback. "Keep it? What, the broken robot? Ew!" 

Ruby ran a hand down her face, wondering just where to start in order to explain what had just happened.

 

* * *

 

 

It took about a week to find civilization again. The first thing Ruby did was turn on long-distance signal and call Penny. Pacing anxiously in her hotel room, she smiled in relief when Penny picked up and answered. "Salutations!" 

"Penny." She sighed, sitting down on the edge of her bed. Two other mattresses were squished up to it, but for now, she had some privacy. "We did it."

A crackle of joy. "You did? You retrieved the memory core?"

"Kind of. We hijacked it from another broken bot. But that should work, right? It didn't have to be yours?"

"Yes, that should work. If the unit hasn't been activated, then it's just a blank slate." Penny made a few noises of thought. "It might take more time to etch my memories onto it, but a blank core should work just fine. You did excellently."

A little hologram of Penny hovered over her scroll. She looked much like she did that last day together, not aging a day while the years changed everyone else. Ruby stretched, her right elbow clicking. In a few months Ruby wouldn't even be a teenager anymore. Filling Penny in on everything that happened, Ruby ended it all with, "I missed you so much. It drove me crazy, not being able to talk to you every night."

"I missed you too. I hope the others kept you entertained." 

Briefly, Ruby remembered that kiss, just before the storm broke. Neither of them had spoken of it, and Pyrrha hadn't entered her tent again since. "They definitely... were something."

Pyrrha had been green and gold and red. She still burned in Ruby's mind, every time she closed her eyes. 

She didn't want to think about Pyrrha. She wanted to talk and think about anything else. "Hey, Penny. Do you have a new body all set up?"

"I do! Would you like to see what I'll look like once I'm repaired?"

Ruby nodded, and the hologram changed. Startled, Ruby stared at a brand new face, everything different from the style of dress to her hair. "I thought I'd go for long black hair," Penny explained. "Long and beautiful, like Blake and Weiss and Pyrrha."

Pyrrha. Pyrrha _was_ very beautiful. "You look great, Penny. Are you excited?"

"Mostly excited to have you back home," she confessed, swapping back to her usual avatar. "It's been so long since I held your hand. I can't wait to do it again. I can't wait to hug you!"

"Me neither!" Relaxing onto the bed, she felt her whole heart soften at the idea. "I miss you, Penny. Even when I'm talking to you like this. I miss you all the time."

Another crackle. Static. The image of Penny fluttered, and for a second Ruby worried they had lost signal.

"You there?"

"Yes." Penny said. "Just...[ listening to you."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feAkCo9RTAA)

"Well, I don't have much more to say." Ruby glanced out the window. "It's getting dark. I should try and turn in early, so we can be ready for tomorrow."

"Then I won't keep you." Another long pause. "Will you call me again tomorrow night?"

"Of course. Every night I can, I will. Just like I promised."

Penny smiled, and said goodbye, and the line went dead.

Lying back on her mattress, Ruby stared at the ceiling and rubbed her sore arm, wishing she had said more.

But the words were never there.

 

* * *

 

 

The journey home was always ten times easier than the initial quest out. No matter where they ventured, that always remained true. Maybe it was just hope giving wings to their feet, or maybe they were just more familiar with the terrain and didn't need to be more careful. From foot, to rail, to plane, they made their way to Atlas.

And every night she called Penny, whenever she was alone. Even if it was just for fifteen minutes, she _needed_ to talk to her.

A few times, Pyrrha walked in on her mid-conversation. She'd stop, staring at her, and then smile and apologize and leave. And afterwards Ruby would always gaze at the spot where she'd stood, and worry, and wonder.

Finally, she decided there was only one course of action.

She had to talk to her best friend.

"Pyrrha kissed me."

The lengthy silence couldn't mean a disconnect, this time. They were in the heart of Atlas, with some of the best signal money could buy. Penny was in stunned silence, digesting what Ruby told her. "What, right now?" 

She shook her head. "About a month ago. She just grabbed me and we started making out."

"...For no reason?"

Flushing to her roots, Ruby went to the window. Outside it was snowing thick and heavy, and the cold made every single one of her scars and joints ache. Not just the metal one. "We were stressed out. I told her if I could comfort her in any way, I'd do it. And she responded like that." Blushing again, she rubbed her scalp, tracing over the familiar lines of old sutures. Like so many other hunters before her, the job had taken its toll, and taken chunks of her with it. Even Aura and advanced healing could only repair so much. "I think she was lonely."

"Hmm." When Ruby checked to see what the hologram was doing then, she was surprised to see Penny hiding a very big grin. "Do you want her to do it again?"

" _Penny_."

"What? It's what happens," Penny said. "Kissing makes the heart beat faster. It makes you all warm and tingly. And then you want to do it over and over again."

Her throat tightened a bit. "I thought I didn't. You know. _Do_ feelings like that. I kind of thought everyone else was exaggerating or joking a little." Then her face twisted up. "Wait, how do you know about all this?"

"Research," Penny said.

"...Oh?"

"Secret research," she stressed, sternly, letting Ruby know not to continue any questions down that line.

"Well it sucks," Ruby said, just as firm. "I don't know. I love her, I really do. I love all my friends." A little shyness. She bullied past it. "And you. I love you, Penny."

Penny didn't even hesitate. Of course she didn't. "I love you, too."

As a friend? As a girlfriend? She didn't know. But it was strong, this connection between them both. Comfortable silence, then. The snow fell, all the roads blocked for now. When the paths cleared, Ruby and her friends would find Dr. Polendina.

Then the real work would begin.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my friend Cal. Thanks, Cal!


End file.
